US DoJ issues $2.4 million in new grants for intellectual property enforcement.

In a speech before an assembled crowd of law enforcement officials in Maryland this week, Attorney General Eric Holder announced the winners of a new federal grant that will send hundreds of thousands of dollars to 13 agencies in an effort to step up enforcement of copyright and trademark laws.

The Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Grant Award, which became available in January 2012, was given to a wide variety of local law enforcement groups, including the City of Austin, the City of Orlando, the County of Sacramento, the Virginia State Police, and most oddly, the City of Central Point, Oregon (population: 13,000).

"Although these awards will be utilized in a variety of ways, they will help to achieve our common goals: to advance prosecutions—as well as prevention and education activities—related to IP theft," Holder said in a speech at the event on Wednesday.

"Without question, these new investments are coming at a critical time. As our country continues to recover from once-in-a-generation economic challenges, the need to defend IP rights—and to protect Americans from IP theft—has never been more urgent. We have seen—far too often—that IP crimes are not victimless. Not only can they devastate individual lives and legitimate businesses, they also undermine our nation’s financial stability, can jeopardize the health of our citizens, and even threaten our national security."

The announcement marked the latest step in a series of moves that the Department of Justice (DoJ) has taken to clamp down on piracy and counterfeit goods. The DoJ has made no secret of its unilateral approach to seizing domain names and other digital property through "Operation in our Sites," illustrated most notably in the takedown and indictment of Megaupload in early January 2012.

Still, Washington, DC hopes that this new money can be used as a way to enhance existing agencies and give them a boost to target counterfeit drugs and physical goods, in addition to unauthorized copies of digital software and media. It will also surely give federal authorities a stronger window into catching piracy operations in various parts of the country. In interviews with three grant recipients, the money will be used to target those various elements of IP crime—some called it a "game-changer."

However, civil libertarian and legal experts question if this is a good use of federal money for enhancing investigation and prosecution of nonviolent crimes, particularly in large urban areas of the country, like Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and San Antonio.

"We too often see law enforcement overreach and target alleged copyright infringement in the name of protecting public safety when many more clear threats to public safety actually exist," said Julie Samuels, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "When this happens, it's important to ask ourselves if this is really how we want our tax dollars spent. More often than not, the answer to that question is no."

St. Louis' new piracy honeypot

In St. Louis, David Marzullo, a police spokesperson, told Ars that the city would be using its grant money to form an "area task force consisting of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to share resources and increase enforcement of existing state and federal IP laws."

Marzullo also provided Ars with the 10-page grant application for $200,000 that St. Louis submitted—it cites counterfeit goods as a notable problem in St. Louis.

"We also know that criminal gangs and organized crime are involved with the production and distribution of counterfeit consumer goods because we encountered these networks while investigating intellectual property crimes in the City of St. Louis," the document states.

However, the document also points out an obvious problem with spending money on IP crime. Most people, particularly in poorer and more gang-ridden areas of the city, are likely more concerned with actual violence, rather than a guy on the street selling pirated CDs.

"Unfortunately, district detectives and uniformed patrol officers are overwhelmed with calls for service that are considered more serious in nature (robbery, assaults, burglaries, motor vehicle thefts) where there is an immediate threat of danger to the public," the grant application continues. "District detectives must prioritize assignments and the districts do not have the staffing or expertise to pro-actively investigate intellectual property crimes occurring in their districts."

The grant will transfer two detectives (each to be paid a base salary of $56,229 per year, plus overtime) to the Major Fraud/Cyber Crimes Section. However, the grant also will make sure that St. Louis increases "the number of investigations resulting in the arrest, seizure and the presentation of evidence…for those persons responsible for knowingly distributing copyrighted software, movies, or music over the Internet." The grant also states that the St. Louis Police Department would manage the use of an "undercover co-located server," designed to "search popular Peer-2-Peer and Internet Relay Chat networks for the distribution of copyrighted software, movies and music from locations in and around the City of St. Louis."

The grant concludes by noting that its effectiveness "will be measured in the number of new investigations, arrests and cases referred for prosecution for intellectual property crimes by the detectives assigned to the Major Fraud/Cyber Crimes Section."

Julie Samuels, the EFF staff attorney, called this goal "troubling."

"We hope that the St. Louis police department complies with all necessary protocol and includes the required due process controls when it implements this program," she added.

California to enhance coordination, expand caseload

In addition to St. Louis, California’s Department of Justice was one of the grantees, and like many of its counterparts, it will receive $200,000 in 2013 for this new program.

Robert Morgester, senior assistant attorney general in California, told Ars that the California Department of Justice would be using the money for three main objectives: to "coordinate IP crime investigation in California," to "refer completed [investigations] for state, local, or federal prosecution," and to conduct at least three law enforcement trainings "as a way to help local cops better enforce IP rules in the Golden State."

Morgester added that the $200,000 would represent about "one-tenth" of the annual $2 million budget for his eCrime Unit, and the new funds would cause a doubling of the unit’s current caseload of eight to 16.

The majority of the grant money would be used, not for anything new, but rather, to pay for overtime, he acknowledged. Morgester said that the extra money would significantly enhance how investigations and prosecutions can be carried out.

"Anytime you serve a search warrant—that search warrant is going to take more than eight hours of employee time," he said. "One of the challenges in the government is getting approval of overtime for agents."

By being given this federal mandate to spend this money specifically on IP issues, Morgester said that it would enable the unit to become more proactive, rather than reactive.

"I got a grant that says ‘thou shalt do IP crime,’" he said. "It makes it far easier for me to justify the expenditure of resources for these types of crimes."

Don't forget about those knockoff Louis Vuitton bags!

Other agencies, however, that aren’t dealing with as much on the digital side, are more concerned with the confiscation of knockoff clothing, handbags, and other items. In Riverside County, California (population: 2.1 million), the assistant district attorney told Ars that they would be spending most of their $200,000 on hiring a new prosecutor and investigator that would deal specifically with IP.

"We have 120 investigators total," Creg Datig, the assistant district attorney of Riverside County, told Ars. "We are going to devote one full-time investigator specifically for IP crime as a result of this grant."

Currently, the county has 12 investigations into IP crimes, but Datig asserted that the grant would allow them to expand to "as many as we can successfully detect and prosecute."

He noted that these new officials would spend some of their time working also on "public outreach," not only to law enforcement agencies in the county, but also to ordinary citizens.

"We’re talking about reaching out by radio, TV spots, by posters, or pamphlets that we hand out and say ‘Look, you might think you got a bargain for getting a Ralph Lauren shirt for $1, but you helped a criminal market their goods,’" he said. "A lot of this property counterfeiting is linked to organized crime. There’s money to be made. Anytime there’s money to be made by ripping somebody off, there’s organized crime there."

Datig added that while Riverside County did not deal with digital IP issues as much as other cities or counties in the country, it has encountered significant cases of trademark violations in counterfeit goods.

"At this point, we’ve had cases that range from over $2 million of counterfeit property," he added. "We have cases ranging from that much all the way down to counterfeited CDs, where the total amount might be $100 or less. It seems as though it’s like kicking over a rock—the more we focus on this particular area the more activity we see."

Promoted Comments

Let the damn content holders pay for their own damn enforcement. I don't want my tax dollars funding this crap. We have actual problems to deal with, like balancing our grossly out of control Federal budget. Our deficit spending is still going strong and adding to our overall debt each and every day. The interest on our debt alone is staggering. It's the copyright holders that wanted infinite copyright. So let them pay to enforce that copyright on all content created since the dawn of time. A load of bollocks is what it is.

88 Reader Comments

Let the damn content holders pay for their own damn enforcement. I don't want my tax dollars funding this crap. We have actual problems to deal with, like balancing our grossly out of control Federal budget. Our deficit spending is still going strong and adding to our overall debt each and every day. The interest on our debt alone is staggering. It's the copyright holders that wanted infinite copyright. So let them pay to enforce that copyright on all content created since the dawn of time. A load of bollocks is what it is.

Grants for "IP Theft"? Is that for prosecuting companies like UMG who make false DMCA claims (thereby stealing the Copy-RIGHT) rather than for infringing monopoly rights (which are in many ways now, stolen from the public via extensions)

I think it's amusing that the AG has a major problem understanding basic points of law as laid down by the SCOTUS.

I'd fund BIg Bird (PBS) many times over before funding this, which at best, is a complete waste of funds. Even if most IP violations were a criminal matter, which they are not, sending money out to a set of disparagent departments without any real oversight is just plain stupid. I'm not for people copying software, music or movies, but my concern for that has been greatly overshadowed by the arrogance of media corporations to believe IP protection is a right, rather than a privledge offererd by the citizens of The United States.

Pfft. It's worse than the war on drugs. It's really not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things that little Timmy is hooked on downloads, and I'm betting that Bubba Bo Bob Brain ain't gonna mug someone just to get his next digital fix.

Grants towards law enforcement are fine, but how about making sure the money goes towards enforcing laws that haven't been so blatantly bought by the *AAs?

"Without question, these new investments are coming at a critical time. As our country continues to recover from once-in-a-generation economic challenges, the need to defend IP rights—and to protect Americans from IP theft—has never been more urgent. We have seen—far too often—that IP crimes are not victimless. Not only can they devastate individual lives and legitimate businesses, they also undermine our nation’s financial stability, can jeopardize the health of our citizens, and even threaten our national security."

Outside of counterfeit drugs. What form of "IP theft" jeopardizes the health of citizens? I also love the part about devastating individual lives and businesses, too. You want to know what jeopardizes the lives and health of our citizenry? That would be legal things like alcohol, tobacco and firearms.

Speaking of devastating. Ubi claims a 95-97% rate of piracy for PC gaming.

- Ubisoft's revenue remained heavily console oriented. X360 was the biggest chunk of revenue for the quarter, at 36% of revenue or about $52.7m. Wii followed at 27% and $39.5m. After that PS3 software contributed 19% and $27.8m in revenue to Ubisoft. The remaining 18% of revenue was mostly attributable to PC (11% / $16.1m), followed by DS (4% / $5.8m) and PSP (2% / $2.9m), with 3DS and other (each 1% / $1.5m) contributing the least for the quarter.http://www.vgchartz.com/article/87262/u ... 1-quarter/

Hmm. Seems like a nice chunk of change if Ubi's claims of piracy are true. And that's one publisher. Activision and EA are both more profitable and larger companies.

A shaken rape victim, whose aggressor had yet to be found, being questioned at the Travis County police station was quoted as saying "thank god tax dollars are going into fighting real problems" as mascara dripped from her cheeks, staining her torn blouse.

"Unfortunately, district detectives and uniformed patrol officers are overwhelmed with calls for service that are considered more serious in nature (robbery, assaults, burglaries, motor vehicle thefts) where there is an immediate threat of danger to the public," the grant application continues. "District detectives must prioritize assignments and the districts do not have the staffing or expertise to pro-actively investigate intellectual property crimes occurring in their districts."

Yeah. I'm sure the victims of violent crimes will be pleased that even though many of the recipients of these grants can't handle investigation of all the violent acts perpetrated in their territory. You can rest assured the grant money will be spent policing IP theft, as that's clearly so very important.

I'm got going to claim its a victimless crime but the biggest victims are those few that get targeted by their own government because of a few downloads. Any polatician that supports this has forever lost my vote.

""""However, the document also points out an obvious problem with spending money on IP crime. Most people, particularly in poorer and more gang-ridden areas of the city are likely more concerned with actual violence, rather than a guy on the street selling pirated CDs.

"Unfortunately, district detectives and uniformed patrol officers are overwhelmed with calls for service that are considered more serious in nature (robbery, assaults, burglaries, motor vehicle thefts) where there is an immediate threat of danger to the public," the grant application continues. "District detectives must prioritize assignments and the districts do not have the staffing or expertise to pro-actively investigate intellectual property crimes occurring in their districts."

The grant will transfer two detectives (each to be paid a base salary of $56,229 per year, plus overtime) to the Major Fraud/Cyber Crimes Section.""""

ok so from this little snippet i understand that even though people are victims of violence St. Louis is going to transfer 2 Detectives that would otherwise be available to investigate a violent crime to investigate why some corporate ceo only gets a $5million bonus instead of a $6million dollar bonus. which is because of IP theft.....hmmmmmmm.

Why isnt the MPAA and the RIA paying for their own copyright enforcement? Why do I, as a tax payer, have to foot the bill? This is a prime example of our broken system, where lobbyists and corporations are pulling the strings.

At one point, Chris Dodd is going to retire. I guess Eric Holder wants to be right there to be appointed in his place.

"Speaking at the Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Grant Award Event in Towson, Maryland on Wednesday, Attorney General Holder praised the DoJ’s attempts at prosecuting Megaupload and its associates for copyright infringement, calling the case yet another example in the courts’ “record of success” when it comes to fighting and preventing IP crimes." Source: http://rt.com/usa/news/justice-departme ... ccess-757/

At one point, Chris Dodd is going to retire. I guess Eric Holder wants to be right there to be appointed in his place.

"Speaking at the Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Grant Award Event in Towson, Maryland on Wednesday, Attorney General Holder praised the DoJ’s attempts at prosecuting Megaupload and its associates for copyright infringement, calling the case yet another example in the courts’ “record of success” when it comes to fighting and preventing IP crimes." Source: http://rt.com/usa/news/justice-departme ... ccess-757/

On the plus side, China's adoption of strict IP enforcement might finally be the sraw that forces US IP reform.

Supporters of stronger intellectual property laws in other countries ought to be careful what they ask for... they just might get it, and then discover they didn't really want it after all. For example, for many, many years, US companies have been screaming loudly about how the US should pressure China to be more respectful of intellectual property. China, for example, regularly makes the "priority watch list" of the USTR's "Special 301" report, which is effectively a catalog of what countries US companies are complaining most about. However, China has suddenly taken an interest in intellectual property in the last few years, and it doesn't seem to be turning out quite like US companies expected.

And now, Slashdot points us to the news that Huawei, the Chinese networking giant, has taken over the lead as filing the most international patents of any company. Just wait until American companies, whose execs complained about China "not respecting intellectual property," start getting sued in East Texas for violating Huawei's patents.

"Unfortunately, district detectives and uniformed patrol officers are overwhelmed with calls for service that are considered more serious in nature (robbery, assaults, burglaries, motor vehicle thefts) where there is an immediate threat of danger to the public," the grant application continues. "District detectives must prioritize assignments and the districts do not have the staffing or expertise to pro-actively investigate intellectual property crimes occurring in their districts."

Yeah. I'm sure the victims of violent crimes will be pleased that even though many of the recipients of these grants can't handle investigation of all the violent acts perpetrated in their territory. You can rest assured the grant money will be spent policing IP theft, as that's clearly so very important.

Wonderful. Let's run law enforcement this way. You donate slip under the table, your money to law enforcement that delivers laws and punishment according to Akemi. We should get just as good results that way as we do when the principle is called "lobbyists and politicians".

"Unfortunately, district detectives and uniformed patrol officers are overwhelmed with calls for service that are considered more serious in nature (robbery, assaults, burglaries, motor vehicle thefts) where there is an immediate threat of danger to the public," the grant application continues. "District detectives must prioritize assignments and the districts do not have the staffing or expertise to pro-actively investigate intellectual property crimes occurring in their districts."

Yeah. I'm sure the victims of violent crimes will be pleased that even though many of the recipients of these grants can't handle investigation of all the violent acts perpetrated in their territory. You can rest assured the grant money will be spent policing IP theft, as that's clearly so very important.

Wonderful. Let's run law enforcement this way. You donate slip under the table, your money to law enforcement that delivers laws and punishment according to Akemi. We should get just as good results that way as we do when the principle is called "lobbyists and politicians".

Wonderful, let's run law enforcement according to Ostracus. Who needs detectives working on solving crimes involving violence when we can instead have them working on solving civil matters like IP violations? I'm sure the victims of violence will be completely understanding that corporate entities clearly are more deserving than they, the poor and disenfranchised.

This is really shameful. Grants to entrap people, in place of finding out why people are copying rather than buying.

And entrapment of this sort really does stretch what any community-focussed law enforcement agency should be doing.

Artists who make music and create paintings/images are people, too. I do think we need some serious reform in the policy. However, keep in mind that law enforcement are just that -- law enforcement. They do not make the laws. The reform has to be made on the legislative front.

"…IP crimes are not victimless.…and even threaten our national security."Ooooohh, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse! Why, who knew that pirate copy of Office 2003 I downloaded threatens the nation?! All this time I thought it was Microsoft's damn Ribbon was the threat.

It's times like these I wish we had a direct democracy. And that voting made a difference.

Let's all pray to our government Lord at the ballot altar and just FEEL like we make a difference, alright? Nevermind the shitty choices, nevermind their ultimate inconsequentiality to legislation that matters and the fact they tie up all rational debate in imbecilic matters not worthy of discussion, but which crop up every election. I'm all for spending money on education, health care even. But what we get are arguments about immigration, which, no matter which side of the fence you're on, isn't as important. Or worse. Goddamn abortion debates. Intellectual property nonsense. Meanwhile, tons of people still aren't working. Partially the fault of businesses and managers, but then, aren't business and government a merging, whole, glorious entity these days?

You guys STILL dont have proper health care and yet your government is spending money on THIS BS? Id lol if it wasnt so sad. Seriously, you guys need to take back control of your government soon, otherwise you'll have no freedom and no fair use left. Your laws will be corporations first and people last, the ones that arent already that is. And, I really wouldnt care all that much, but your stupid politicians are putting pressure on MY government to do things that MY fellow citizens dont want. FU to anyone in the US who supports copyright laws as they stand today.

This is really shameful. Grants to entrap people, in place of finding out why people are copying rather than buying.

And entrapment of this sort really does stretch what any community-focussed law enforcement agency should be doing.

Artists who make music and create paintings/images are people, too. I do think we need some serious reform in the policy. However, keep in mind that law enforcement are just that -- law enforcement. They do not make the laws. The reform has to be made on the legislative front.

As to finding out why people are copying? The answer is money.

BS. If people, AKA police, judges and lawyers, start refusing to charge people with these BS laws, the government will follow. If you think that the government is going to do what is in your best interest, you havent been following your politics for very long, have you? You guys and most other countries as well, havent had any meaningful change that wasnt pro corporate BS in a very long time.

Why isnt the MPAA and the RIA paying for their own copyright enforcement? Why do I, as a tax payer, have to foot the bill? This is a prime example of our broken system, where lobbyists and corporations are pulling the strings.

This is why people need to start listening to the conspiracy theorists a little closer. You guys see shit like this ALL THE TIME, you will agree that shit is broken, but as soon as someone points out a specific person committing a specific crime, you call it a conspiracy(AKA 9/11 "truthers"). Things are going to get worse until you guys fix not onyl the patent system, but ALL the systems, starting with the guys who control your money supply. They arent US citizens, they arent accountable to US citizens and they can fund or not fund any person or candidate they choose to. You guys need to find some leaders that actually care about the poor and the middle class. You need fire every single US senator, every single US congressman, and elect some poor and middle class people to start making the laws. And dont tell me "but they dont know how to run government" or "they arent educated enough to run government and make laws", thats BS. Your senators dont either, they have industry professionals advise them. The poor and middle class can do the same, only they have a better perpective. When you elect people who are rich and or famous, they are going to make laws that are in the best interest of their own families, who are also rich and/or famous. Start electing poor people, and suddenly your government will be representative of the majority of your population, and start making laws that are in the best interest of the majority of the population.

What a joke, of course still no investigations of Wall Street, the banks and mortgage industries but money and investigations for copying digital files but not for stealing and causing trillions of dollars in damages. A complete, total, unabashed abject fraud is the governments priorities.

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buggsy2 wrote:

"…IP crimes are not victimless.…and even threaten our national security."Ooooohh, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse! Why, who knew that pirate copy of Office 2003 I downloaded threatens the nation?! All this time I thought it was Microsoft's damn Ribbon was the threat.

Lol yeah, but I wonder if almost collapsing the whole economy by bankers "too big to fail", to be held liable to laws and justice, which hold the country and world hostage by economic terrorism through their financial dirty bombs that have gone off and even more are still planted are a "threat to national security". Instead they claim little Jimmy listening to Beiber is.

This is really shameful. Grants to entrap people, in place of finding out why people are copying rather than buying.

And entrapment of this sort really does stretch what any community-focussed law enforcement agency should be doing.

Artists who make music and create paintings/images are people, too. I do think we need some serious reform in the policy. However, keep in mind that law enforcement are just that -- law enforcement. They do not make the laws. The reform has to be made on the legislative front.

As to finding out why people are copying? The answer is money.

I don't recall arguing against artists making a living. I do have a problem with the vampires in the middle, and with monopolies. Are you seriously suggesting artists will benefit from this? Companies like Sony and Universal will, but no artist will see anything.

On the broader concept of legal monopolies (i.e. patents and copyrights), did the introduction of copyrights lead us into new wonders of content creation? A new Shakespeare, perhaps (who never benefitted from copyright but managed to make a good living)? Are patents helping the back garage inventor, or even the multi-national that needs to negotiate dozens of patent arrangements on one product? And is someone like JK Rowling or Madonna really worth billions of dollars? Because they would be able to earn quite a tidy living writing and/or singing even without copyright protection. But they wouldn't be able to demand monopoly prices.

Why are people copying? The answer is not just money. Plenty of people download television shows from the web illegally, because the owner doesn't want to provide them. Plenty of people who copy would never have bought the item. Others copy to see if they like it, and then buy it.

Yes, law enforcement has to enforce laws. But there is also an expectation that industries will look after their own back yards, rather than getting government freebies on top of monopolies.

Wonderful, let's run law enforcement according to Ostracus. Who needs detectives working on solving crimes involving violence when we can instead have them working on solving civil matters like IP violations? I'm sure the victims of violence will be completely understanding that corporate entities clearly are more deserving than they, the poor and disenfranchised.

And why do you think the legal system should be based upon if one likes or dislikes the plaintiffs or defendants?

Let the damn content holders pay for their own damn enforcement. I don't want my tax dollars funding this crap. We have actual problems to deal with, like balancing our grossly out of control Federal budget. Our deficit spending is still going strong and adding to our overall debt each and every day. The interest on our debt alone is staggering. It's the copyright holders that wanted infinite copyright. So let them pay to enforce that copyright on all content created since the dawn of time. A load of bollocks is what it is.

Why don't we let people who are assaulted/murdered/robbed/burgled handle their own enforcement too? After all, if they didn't want people to hurt/kill/steal from them, they would clearly spend the money to do so!

Seriously, this is the same sort of "blame the victims" argument that gets leveled at rape victims. We have laws and we should be enforcing them - all of them. If the law is stupid, then it should be changed, but in this case, the laws are not stupid - counterfeit goods are indeed a real problem, and this sort of criminal activity should be pursued, and resources should be allocated to it. Public safety is NOT the only thing that law enforcement needs to be concerned with - economic safety is also important. Yeah, a burglary doesn't kill anyone, but it sure has a negative impact. So does people selling counterfeit goods or otherwise trafficking in illegal materials.

It is not the job of the copyright holders to enforce the laws - it is the job of the government to enforce the law. You are the same sort of person who complained about corporate prosecution in England in a copyright case, so which is it?

No, your argument is invalid. These are taxpayers, and they deserve to be protected the same as everyone else. The idea that this sort of thing is not important, or should be left up to the companies, is stupid. Do you really want the MPAA throwing you in jail for owning a pirated CD? No? Then quit whining.

Yes, copyright terms need to be limited, but the goods that are being counterfeited are, by and large, NOT old goods but new movies and films, which sell much better on the street than stuff from the 1970s.

Did you really go to the absurd length of comparing criminal acts with a civil violation? It is not the police, FBI, ATF, CIA or Secret Service's jobs to enforce civil action. At best you'll get the police to make a report so there's a record of the act. In a civil incident it is the responsibility of the victim to sue the perpetrator of the act for any damages. I certainly don't see police and prosecutors chomping at the bit to arrest and prosecute people involved in minor fender benders. And it's most certainly the job of the person who's not at fault to contact his insurance company and sue in court for any deductible or damages not covered by their insurer.

The same has been true of copyright until very recently when the bribe lobbying money has proliferated to enough seats in the House and Senate within both major parties.

Quote:

It is not the job of the copyright holders to enforce the laws - it is the job of the government to enforce the law. You are the same sort of person who complained about corporate prosecution in England in a copyright case, so which is it?

There's a damn big difference in corporate prosecution in a kangaroo court and a company hiring a law firm and suing in civil court for copyright infringement. Then having to prove infringement actually occurred. You must be new at this analogy thing.

Give the police departments carte blanche to use their stipends as they see fit. I guarantee you it won't be used to set up IP enforcement sections in departments that already can't handle the number of ongoing investigations into violent crimes sitting on their plates. Just like hospitals prioritize cases by the nature of the injury. So to do police departments prioritize investigations by the severity of the crime.

I won't even address the economic crap as that nonsense has been debunked so many times it's just sad to see it repeated again and again ad nauseum.

I see the necessity of stopping counterfeit goods, because that's a real problem. Think about the bad working conditions at Foxconn for example. That's a legal business. Now imagine what kind of conditions counterfeiters work in... They probably don't even know that what's being done to them is wrong, or that they're doing something wrong.@All pirates: Pay for your stuff, or don't get it. You don't need it, it's just entertainment, so stop the bullshit about "I can't afford it". I used to pirate stuff too, but then I really realised what I was doing so I stopped. And looky here, I'm still alive and happy.

It is not the job of the copyright holders to enforce the laws - it is the job of the government to enforce the

Then explain to us, oh great condescending sage, why patent law is only enforced by the patent holders and not the government? When you're done ridiculing me with your answer, then please explain the difference between a patent and copyright which makes it OK for the government to enforce one (copyright) and ignore the other (patent).